I'll jump back in and throw out two points:
1. Hope is a word I never want to hear when it comes to my safety. We go down a slippery slope when our self-defense becomes oriented around hope. "I will be funny and hope this guy decides I am not worth fighting." "I will try to avoid this guy and hope he doesn't see me." These types of actions make my safety dependent on someone else. I don't like that. If I am in danger, then it is incumbent upon myself to remove the element of danger, not hope someone will do it for me. There are two possible outcomes here: 1. I am empowered to remove the danger; 2. I am not empowered to remove the danger and I must remove myself. We don't like #2 because in "civilized society" I should be free to walk where I want, say what I want, and act how I want. But guess what? You shouldn't walk down dark alleys, you shouldn't say things that instigate others to action, and you shouldn't act in a manner that gets provokes rebuttal. Unless you are willing to accept the repercussions...
2. Social predation is a primitive action and beyond comprehension. Altercations that involve social predation are serious because there is no "civilized" reason for the action. Normal people cannot comprehend the patterns and reasons behind social predation; it's why the FBI has a whole section dedicated to figuring out these whack-jobs. In a primitive sense, social predators beat you up because they can; "I am alpha, you are not," "I have power over you," I have control over you." The worst type of hope is hope dependent upon a social predator.
In one of the above posts, Texas was a social predator - he was dominating his girlfriend in public and there happened to be a bigger fish out there to stop him. Here's the bad part... what happened to girlfriend when Texas was let out? According to the FBI, there would be a good chance she was be the victim of an assault, possibly sexual. Why? Because Texas is a social predator as his actions at the bar are probably indicative of habitual behavior.

Whether you get a gun to defend yourself, whether you get a dog, whether you get a whistle or mace, social predators hunt you because you are weaker in a sense that is attractive to them. Until you empower yourself to become stronger than the predator you are on the menu. In this thread the underlying theme of this question is , "how does this kid get off the menu?" Hope ain't the answer.

Someday we will get past "hoping" husbands don't beat their wives, "hoping" gang bangers don't shoot up a house with children, "hoping" high school children don't get victimized by bullies. Until then we'll just set up websites to take donations for victims.